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Sunday, July 13, 2014

#1117: David Schmidt

David Schmidt is the founder of LifeWave, and the inventor
of LifeWave’s trademarked “nontransdermal energy patches”. The patches are
allegedly based on nanotechnology and “needleless acupuncture to gently
stimulate points on the body that have been used to balance and improve the
flow of energy in the human body for thousands of years,” in order to help manage pain,
improve sleep, increase energy, suppress appetite and support detoxification by affecting your chi or something, and “communicate with your body like a cell
phone.” The descriptions of the mechanisms are, in other words, your standard
New Age mumbo jumbo. Yet his company has testimonials! They also have some
“studies” published in pseudojournals such as TANG International Journal of Genuine Traditional Medicine (even
the name reeks of lack of professionalism), and their own health & science
director Steven Haltiwanger concluded after careful and thorough research that
LifeWave was “the most exciting technology that he had seen.”

The patent application for the patch, however, was apparently rejected - partially, one suspects, because Schmidt signed the patent application “Dr.
David Schmidt” despite lack of any accredited degree – which is not a good sign
regarding its efficacy and usefulness. The product has, however, been promoted
by “LifeWave Ambassador” Suzanne Somers,
which is likewise not a good indication of its efficacy. Their Australian branch
has received smackdowns from the TGA for their advertising, after the TGA panel found that it was not
the case that “the material provided by the advertiser constituted even
minimally persuasive evidence that the advertised products could have the
therapeutic benefits claimed in the advertisements.”

There is a resource on the patches here, though
its trustworthiness has not been independently verified. There is a pretty
decent resource here,
however.

Diagnosis: The Internet is pretty much crammed with these kinds
of businesses, and LifeWave is little different from most – a magic product,
claims to the efficacy of which are backed up by a whole mythology of cargo
cult science. We will just have to assume that Schmidt actually believes the
patches to be efficacious.